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Why is my model being rebuilt instead of reused?

dbt State decides whether to reuse a model by comparing its compiled SQL to the hash from the previous run. If anything changes that compiled SQL between runs, even when the logic hasn't meaningfully changed, dbt State rebuilds the model.

These two patterns commonly cause unexpected rebuilds:

Views with select *​

dbt State always rebuilds views that use select * anywhere in their SQL, including inside CTEs. A common staging pattern like the following triggers this behavior:

with source as (
    select * from {{ source("my_source", "my_table") }}
),

renamed as (
    select
        id as order_id,
        ...
    from source
)

select * from renamed

dbt State reuses a model when its compiled SQL matches the stored hash. For views with select *, dbt State can't determine which columns the query selects without querying the upstream schema, so it can't confirm the SQL is unchanged. It always rebuilds these views to avoid reusing a stale result.

tip

To make this view eligible for reuse, remove the import CTE and reference the source directly with explicit column names:

select
    id as order_id,
    ...
from {{ source("my_source", "my_table") }}

Non-deterministic Jinja templating​

Some macros, such as dbt_utils.get_relations_by_pattern (an introspective macro) combined with dbt_utils.union_relations, can return relations in a different order on each run. That produces different compiled SQL even when your project logic hasn't changed. dbt State detects a new hash and rebuilds the model.

This pattern can affect any model type, not just views. If a base or staging model rebuilds on every run, all of its downstream models rebuild, too.

How to diagnose​

In dbt Core v1.7–v1.12, run the dbt-state explain command to see why dbt State rebuilt or reused a specific model.

Experimental

The dbt-state explain command is experimental. It isn't available in the dbt Fusion engine or dbt platform yet.

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